Kathy

Kathy Peterkin, a computer training specialist and former day care provider, died Wednesday of sarcoidosis, a lung inflammation that affects young African-Americans, at Northwest Hospital Center in Randallstown. She was 40. Mrs. Peterkin, who lived in Pikesville, was in charge of computer training for Dal-Tile in Eldersburg. Born Kathy Gorham in Baltimore, she was raised in Gwynn Oak and graduated from Northwestern High School in 1979. She earned her bachelor's degree in early childhood development from Coppin State College in 1983.

They called her Gidget -- as in girl midget. Like Barbie, the name found its way into our vocabulary. And, in 1959, "Gidget" the movie set off a tsunami of surf-themed films with wide beaches and thin plots. Well, she's back. Berkley Books has reissued "Gidget" the novel, 44 years after it first inspired the movie. And, if you happened to have hit the beach at Malibu on a Monday, you might have run into Gidget herself sizing up the surf. "For a long time I retreated and didn't talk about this," says the real Gidget, Kathy Kohner Zuckerman, an animated 60-year-old part-time restaurant hostess who grew up in Brentwood and now lives in Pacific Palisades, a beach community on the west side of Los Angeles with her husband of 36 years.

Kathy Wheatley has some important advice for anyone thinking of doing remodeling work. "Hire a contractor you really, really like," she said. Then with a big, glowing smile, she added, "I liked my contractor a lot." Well, she should like him. The man who gave Kathy Wheatley her dream kitchen in her Monkton home is her husband and business partner, Gary Wheatley. Together, the couple own and operate Wheatley Contracting. "We've been married 21 years and have been in business 21 years," she said.

`Kathy and Mo Show' is back with new faces In 1986 and 1987, Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffney honed their off-Broadway two-woman show in repeat engagements at the Theatre Project. Since then they have each gone on to wider careers in TV and film as well as on stage. (Najimy is currently starring in "Dirty Blonde" on Broadway.) Meanwhile, "The Kathy and Mo Show: Parallel Lives" has had a continued life without them. Beginning tomorrow, Baltimoreans will get a chance to see the show again, but with different stars and in a different venue, the Audrey Herman Spotlighters Theatre.

After more than four years in Baltimore, WJZ reporter Kathy Fowler was fired by the station earlier this month, to the surprise and dismay of colleagues. Fowler was one of the few journalists at the station who reveled in shaking loose new elements of stories that sparked strong public interest. "I just was astounded that they would let her go," said Mindy Basara, a reporter at rival WBAL. "She's a great reporter, aggressive, with a hard-news take on stories. I was never happy to see her on a story I was covering, because that meant the competition was there."

After 15 years alongside Regis Philbin in the morning talk-show arena, Kathie Lee Gifford stepped down yesterday, of her own volition and after a week of on-air tributes and farewells. She deserves to be saluted for two things above all else: her longevity in the job and her spontaneity on the job. The longevity, in and of itself, is impressive in a medium that chews up and spits out talent so quickly. Gifford co-hosted "Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee" since its national syndication debut in 1988 and shared hosting duties with Philbin on its WABC-TV New York precedessor, "The Morning Show," since 1985.

News item: Kathie Lee Gifford's last appearance on "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee" will be on Friday. Dear Diary: Well, this is it! My final few days on the show! Then it's on to a new career: singing and acting! Hope there's nothing wrong with Reege, though. Today I said to him: "Well, I suppose I could stay. I mean, if you really want me to stay, I'll stay." He got so pale! Then the poor thing had to lie down. Gelman reacted the same way. Hope they're both OK. They'll always mean the world to me. Dear Diary: You know what makes me so sad?

Patrons of Rep Stage's production of "Sleuth" will find two Feiningers listed in the program, Kathy (the director) and Conrad (one of the play's two actors). And, yes, they're married. They met 17 years ago in Minneapolis while working on George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber's "The Royal Family" -- a play, as luck would have it, about life in the theater. "She was stage-managing it," Conrad Feininger recalls, "and I came in to audition. I always said if I ever found a good stage manager, I'd marry her."

I am not going to do it. I am not going to cut up Kathie Lee Gifford for her performance -- if you want to call it that -- in Disney's "Model Behavior" tomorrow night on ABC. I do not shoot foul-smelling dead fish frozen stiff in a barrel. After seeing her Christmas specials and witnessing her career as a talk show host, why would anyone think she could act? And I am absolutely not going to comment on the cameo performance of her 9-year-old son, Cody, in the film. After 20 years of reviewing television, there's a lot of dried blood on the old pen. But I've never stooped to shredding a 9-year-old kid just because he has no discernible talent.

One of the things that kept me going over the years was imagining a Kathie Lee Gifford interview with Saddam Hussein. ("Wow, you look great! Did you lose weight? C'mon, let's hear it for the Butcher of Baghdad!") Now, in the wake of her stunning on-air announcement yesterday that she's leaving "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee" when her contract expires this summer, the possibility of her chatting up the Iraqi strongman ("Is that a new sidearm? It's gorgeous!") seems remote. But a guy can dream, can't he?